The winning formula tonight? Score first!

For the Blues, it's simple. Score first, win. Allow the first goal, chase the game.

When the Blues score first, they are 4-0 in the playoffs, 1-4 when they don't and they have allowed the first goal in the series in each of the first four games.

St. Louis has had the lead for 3:51, trailed for 124:43 of 240 minutes played and have been tied for 111:26.

"In every playoff game, to get the lead is really big," Berglund said. "We've been having good starts. I don't think our starts have been a problem. ... In my opinion, we need to get in front of the net more so you can create some more chances that way because right now, we feel like we're coming off those good starts but the real scoring chances maybe are not Grade-A scoring chances. If we can get some traffic in front of (Predators goalie Pekka Rinne), maybe we will be in better shape."

Scoring first would enable the Blues to get to their game quicker and allow them to perhaps dictate.

"Yeah, I think that would be definitely in our favor and beneficial for us," Parayko said. "Throughout the series, they've gotten the first one and for us to get the first one would be huge I think. It would allow us to see how they respond to something like that. In a perfect world, that would be good, but I thought we've done a good job of responding when they've scored though. We've always seemed to come back. I know we scored two goals in the third of Game 1 and Game 2. Every other game, I thought we've done a good job of responding. Obviously it's nice to get the first one. We'll just kind of not let anything phase us."

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But playing well at the starts of games and not scoring first has been a bit taxing.

"It's tough when you're working so hard and you kind of feel like you're not getting credit almost," Parayko said. "But at the same time, it's one of those things we've got to continue to push and realize how well we're doing things. We can't let it phase us. It's obviously frustrating when you get a few good opportunities, but that's part of playoffs and what's going to make us better down the road. I think we've got to realize that and we've got to make sure that we continue to keep pushing.

"I think we're there, but playoffs are so tight. Each game is like a one-goal game. It's a matter of bounces almost, a matter of power play, but when you look at it, I thought we had a great game last game and we came out firing. We had a lot of good chances. I thought we checked last game as well. Just obviously a couple mistakes and that's it. It's something that we're going to look forward to tonight. The focus is tonight and only tonight. You don't want to look too far in the series, look back in the series. Give it everything we have."

And by giving it everything they have, Yeo feels like the Blues are due.

"Maybe we're due, I didn't say it was going to happen," Yeo said. "I'd like to think that.

"I think it's everybody. You look at playoff hockey, and when you're chasing, and when you're chasing as much as we have, it makes things more difficult. But no excuses. I'd like to think we're due for that but if we score the first goal, there's no guarantees that's going to cakewalk us to a win. We've got a lot of hockey to play after that point and if we don't give up the first goal, we can't let that be a reason we don't come away with a win tonight."

Some don't feel like it's a big deal.

"I don't think it really matters who scores first," Tarasenko said. "We're in a tough spot right now. We have to win three straight games and we're focused on this game first."